Setoguchi is the Soul of the Sharks

The San Jose Sharks are hotter than ever partly due to right winger Devin Setoguchi’s efforts this season. He’s the type of player who always seems to be in the right spot at the right time. He’s not afraid to put some shots on net, and he even holds a tie for the franchise record with 10 shots on net in a single game.

In his junior hockey season, he made his impression. Setoguchi had three thirty goal seasons, and his desire to play, led to him being drafted in the first round by San Jose, eighth overall.

Setoguchi is definitely a key player for the San Jose Sharks future. As a rookie, he proved himself in his very first game. He scored two goals in a 4-2 Sharks win, one of his goals which turned out to be the game-winner.

So far in the 2008-2009 season, he has tallied twenty-two goals, two of them being game-winners and has a total of forty-six points. Most of Setoguchi’s goals come from the face-off dots or from being a screen in front of the net. Teammates can find him anywhere on the ice and he can usually find an opening to score. In his first season with the sharks, he played in forty-four games and scored only eleven goals, which shows he has definitely improved in his sophmore year.

Setoguchi has skill, size that he is learning to use, and a passion to work hard in all aspects of his game. For whichever team he plays for he adds his scoring touch. He’s a pretty good skater too, which adds to his ability to score goals. Playing on a line with guys like Patrick Marleau and Milan Michalek doesn’t hurt either.

Not only does he like to contribute offensively, he also tries to throw his body around when he can. In Saturday’s match up against the Blue Jackets, he totaled seven hits, and has eighty-two hits on the season so far. Now even though he gets physical, Setoguchi isn’t the type of player to take stupid penalties. Through the forty-nine games he’s played, he has only totaled 6 penalties, which isn’t bad for a player who logs in about seventeen minutes of ice time per game.

He was selected at this year’s All Star Game in Montreal to play in the Young Stars Game on the sophmore roster. In that game he scored one goal.

With some players in the NHL, it seems as if injury strikes some players consistently. Setoguchi doesn’t seem to be one of those guys, which is a big plus for the Sharks. He has missed one game this season, and that was only due to a death in the family. Setoguchi is a reliable player to have on your team.

At the same time, he was once known as an “inconsistent player”, as reported by a scout. What was meant by this is some games he simply just didn’t show up. Although that may have been true, when he did play, he played great. He has since seemed to transform into a more complete player who has learned to play every night, and to step up when needed.